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Title:
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Towards SocialVR: Evaluating a Novel Technology for Watching Videos Together
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Author:
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Montagud, Mario; Li, Jie; Cernigliaro, Gianluca; El Ali, Abdallah; Fernández, Sergi; Pablo, Cesar
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Abstract:
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Social VR enables people to interact over distance with others in real-time. It allows remote people, typically represented as avatars, to communicate and perform activities together in a shared virtual environment, extending the capabilities of traditional social platforms like Facebook and Netflix. This paper explores the benefits and drawbacks provided by a lightweight and low-cost Social VR platform (SocialVR), in which users are captured by several cameras and reconstructed in real-time. In particular, the paper contributes with (1) the design and evaluation of an experimental protocol for Social VR experiences; (2) the report of a production workflow for this new type of media experiences; and (3) the results of experiments with both end-users (N=15 pairs) and professionals (N=22 companies) to evaluate the potential of the SocialVR platform. Results from the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews show that end-users rated positively towards the experiences provided by the SocialVR platform, which enabled them to sense emotions and communicate effortlessly. End-users perceived the photo-realistic experience of SocialVR similar to face-to-face scenarios and appreciated this new creative medium. From a commercial perspective, professionals confirmed the potential of this communication medium and encourage further research for the adoption of the platform in the commercial landscape |
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Publication date:
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2022-05-08 |
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Subject (UDC):
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621.3 - Enginyeria elèctrica. Electrotècnia. Telecomunicacions |
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Subject(s):
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Virtual Reality
Video streaming |
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Rights:
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The version of record of this article, first published in Virtual Reality, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-022-00651-5 |
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Pages:
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34 p. |
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Document type:
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Article
Article - Accepted version |
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DOI:
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-022-00651-5
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Published by:
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Springer
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Publish at:
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Virtual Reality
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Share:
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